1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method used in a display system, and more particularly, to a method of handling operation of a source driver and the related source driver and timing controller.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A display driver integrated circuit (IC) is a circuit used for driving a display panel. The display driver IC transmits signals or data to each row and column of pixels on the display panel, to drive the pixels of the display panel to display an image. For example, a thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) is driven by a gate driver IC and a source driver IC. The gate driver IC is coupled to the gate terminal of the TFTs on the display panel, for turning the TFTs on or off. The source driver IC, which is coupled to the source terminal of the TFTs, transmits display data to the TFTs when the TFTs are turned on. The TFTs are turned on by the gate driver IC line by line, so the display data transmitted to the turned-on TFTs are called line data, which are received by a line of TFTs at a time.
In general, the gate driver IC and the source driver IC are controlled by a timing controller. The timing controller transmits line data to the source driver IC, which then forwards the line data to the display panel. After the source driver IC receives a line data from the timing controller, the line data is stored in a data latch of the source driver IC. When the source driver IC receives a load (LD) signal from the timing controller, the source driver IC transmits the line data, which is stored in the data latch, to the display panel . The source driver IC performs the above operations repeatedly no matter whether the newly received line data is identical to the previously received line data.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a waveform diagram of a conventional display system. In the conventional display system, a source driver is communicated with a timing controller and a display panel. FIG. 1 illustrates waveforms of line data, load (LD) signals and output data, where the line data and the LD signals are transmitted by the timing controller and received by the source driver. The output data, converted from the line data, is transmitted to the display panel by the source driver. In detail, the source driver receives the line data from the timing controller via a data bus, and then transmits the output data to the display panel when receiving an LD signal from the timing controller. The data is transmitted line by line, and each line data may be transmitted to a line of thin-film transistors (TFTs) on the display panel. For example, the source driver receives line data Y, Z, A, A, A, B, C and D in sequence. The received line data may be stored in a data latch of the source driver, and the line data stored in the data latch is outputted as the output data when the LD signal is received, as shown in FIG. 1.
Please note that the conventional source driver performs data reception and transmission repeatedly. Even if identical line data is received consecutively, the source driver may still write the identical line data into the data latch. Such an operation consumes additional power and gains no benefits. In such a situation, redundant power consumption is required since the same line data is rewritten into the data latch if a line data is identical to its previous line data. Thus, there is a need for improvement over the prior art.